Man sentenced for killing wife

A Northeast Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife more than 20 years ago.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Northeast Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife more than 20 years ago.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 61-year-old Douglas Howery was sentenced Monday in Audrain County, where the case was heard on a change of venue.Howery was convicted in November of first-degree murder in the 1992 death of his wife, Betty Ann Howery. She was 44 when she disappeared in February 1992 from the couple’s rural home in Pike County.Douglas Howery was arrested in 2009 after the septic tank being replaced at his former farm was found to contain his wife’s bones.Howery’s public defender, Thomas Crocco Jr., maintained his client’s innocence and said he will appeal.